Gardners shifts into top gear for rubbish trucks

To promote the safe disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Cardiff, and help to make a positive impact to the city’s WEEE disposal targets, The City of Cardiff Council partnered with wide-format printer Gardners – also based in the Welsh capital – on its latest campaign.

What was the project?

The council required bilingual signage outlining the proper disposal of electrical goods for 14 of its vehicles.

What did it entail?

Gardners printed the graphics on 300gsm PVC mesh using one of its Durst Rho 512R printers. The firm then cut the 28 prints to size, one for each side of the council’s 14 waste management vehicles. Finally, Gardners installed the banners using its patented advertising system, Agripa, which enables the quick changeover of graphics via frames already installed on the side of clients’ vehicles that essentially act as mobile advertising sites.

What challenges were overcome?

“In Wales, local authority messages are quite rightly bilingual. This means that for a vehicle with a banner on each side, there will be one in Welsh and one in English,” said Gardners sales director James Morris.

“This presents a small challenge in the respect that we always want the finished installations to be uniform in appearance, so we are careful to ensure that the same language’s message appears on the same side of the vehicle each time.”

The banners also had to be produced in a variety of sizes, ranging from 1.3x1.2m to 3x1.2m, to fit the council’s various vehicles.

“Councils have many different types of refuse collection vehicles – and within those vehicle types there are often variances as well – so it takes a lot of management,” said Morris.

“Even though there might only be two artwork types, we need to be careful to install the correct-sized banner on the correct vehicle – so as standard procedure every piece needs to be labelled up; left side or right side, which type and variance of vehicle, right down to the registration number. In order to do this work successfully, we must understand the details of the client’s fleet – something our experienced staff are able to handle very well.”

What was the feedback?

A City of Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “We’re very pleased to work with Gardners on this project. We regularly use our own media space to promote bilingual council messages so that they are clear and understood by all.”

Do you have a Killer App? We are interested in special, difficult or simply fabulous print jobs. Contact Max Goldbart on 020 7501 6681 or max.goldbart@markallengroup.com.